The French police report they've caught two Italian wine merchants responsible for placing phony custom wine labels on bottles sold to consumers. Law enforcement officials stated poor-quality wines were packaged with custom wine labels claiming they were Romanee-Contee, a Burgundy that's known as one of the most expensive wines in the world, BBC News stated.

By mislabeling cheap wine as a luxury product, the merchants were allegedly able to make roughly 2 million euros, or $2.7 million.

French police launched an investigation after the vintners behind Romanee-Contee - a 12-bottle case of which was once auctioned for $297,000 - reported knock-offs of their product were being produced and sold.

The fraudsters behind the wine scam reportedly created fake wine labels and then treated them with wax to make them look older and identical to real Romanee-Contee bottles.

Counterfeits with False Wine Bottle Labels Potentially Still Selling
France has requested the Italian men accused of selling the products with fake wine bottle labels be extradited. A French prosecutor told BBC other suspects are being sought after.

The two merchants who have been identified are accused of selling 400 fake bottles, and French police believe many more phony wines are still on the market.